Responding to Gordonstrong's question about making an extract beer, since I'm still very new at this I'm not sure what exactly that is, but I have read in various dunkel recipes that Munich malt extract is included, so my intention is to use whatever ingredients are required for the desired beer. in this case, a dunkel. I only hope that the necessary ingredients are not too difficult to acquire, as I haven't done my research to that degree yet.
Thanks a10t2 about the post about a swamp cooler. I'll certainly look into that. Anything I can do to be economical would certainly be nice, and my unfinished basement floor from the beginning was where I planned to have the fermenter, and which may very well provide a cool enough environment.
That brings up another question, and please pardon my ignorance if this is a stupid question, but is there a way to read the tempurature of the liquid inside the fermenter (carboy, correct?)? If so, I could do one or two test batches to see what tempurature the beer ferments at simply sitting on the concrete floor.